Amazon.com
It has taken four years, but with Head First Java the introductory Java book category has finally come of age. This is an excellent book, far more capable than any of the scores of Java-for-novices books that have come before it. Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates deserve rich kudos--and big sales--for developing this book's new way of teaching the Java programming language, because any reader with even a little bit of discipline will come away with true understanding of how the language works. Perhaps best of all, this is no protracted "Hello, World" introductory guide. Readers get substantial exposure to object-oriented design and implementation, serialization, neatwork programming, threads, and Remote Method Invocation (RMI).

Key to the authors' teaching style are carefully designed graphics. Rather than explain class inheritance (to cite one example) primarily with text, the authors use a series of tree diagrams that clarify the mechanism far more succinctly. The diagrams are carefully annotated with arrows and notes. Also characteristic of the unique teaching strategy is heavy reliance on exercises, in which the reader is asked to complete partial classes, write whole new code segments and do design work. Though there's little discussion of why the exercises' correct answers are what they are, it's clear that the practice work was carefully designed to reinforce the lesson at hand. If you've waited this long to give Java a try, this book is a great choice. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Java programming language for people with no Java experience, and even people with no programming experience at all. Key concepts read like a list of Java features: Object oriented design, variable type and scope, object properties and methods, inheritance and polymorphism, exceptions, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), network connectivity, Java archives (JAR files), and Remote Method Invocation (RMI).Book Description
Learning a complex new language is no easy task especially when it s an object-oriented computer programming language like Java.You might think the problem is your brain. It seems to have a mind of its own, a mind that doesn't always want to take in the dry, technical stuff you're forced to study.

The fact is your brain craves novelty. It's constantly searching, scanning, waiting for something unusual to happen. After all, that's the way it was built to help you stay alive. It takes all the routine, ordinary, dull stuff and filters it to the background so it won't interfere with your brain's real work--recording things that matter. How does your brain know what matters? It's like the creators of the Head First approach say, suppose you're out for a hike and a tiger jumps in front of you, what happens in your brain? Neurons fire. Emotions crank up. Chemicals surge.

That's how your brain knows.

And that's how your brain will learn Java. Head First Java combines puzzles, strong visuals, mysteries, and soul-searching interviews with famous Java objects to engage you in many different ways. It's fast, it's fun, and it's effective. And, despite its playful appearance, Head First Java is serious stuff: a complete introduction to object-oriented programming and Java.You'll learn everything from the fundamentals to advanced topics, including threads, network sockets, and distributed programming with RMI.And the new. second edition focuses on Java 5.0, the latest version of the Java language and development platform.Because Java 5.0 is a major update to the platform, with deep, code-level changes, even more careful study and implementation is required.So learning the Head First way is more important than ever.

If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect--a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. If you haven't, you're in for a treat. You'll see why people say it's unlike any other Java book you've ever read.

By exploiting how your brain works, Head First Java compresses the time it takes to learn and retain--complex information.Its unique approach not only shows you what you need to know about Java syntax, it teaches you to think like a Java programmer. If you want to be bored, buy some other book. But if you want to understand Java, this book's for you. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (192)

Review of Head First Java
Just started the book, but I'm really enjoying it!

The authors are correct about the effectiveness of having different methods of teaching, pictures, puzzles, etc. It makes such a difference now when I look at other books. I would definitely recommend purchasing this book to learn Java!...even as a beginner to programming (if you a moderately good w/ computers).

Now if only I wasn't trying to juggle so many things at once - I could knock the book out and finish it.

Great Supplement to the Classic Java Book
Head First Java helps to establish a better understanding between the reader and the material. I had already completed an Intro to Computer Science course that was based in Java, and I felt that this book helped me to have a better understanding of the material. I would not recommend however, to read solely this book without a classic Java textbook, because I don't believe it goes in depth enough.

Overall: Great Supplement to Reinforce the Material

Oooh, those practice problems are tough!
As much as I love this book (and I really, really do), I must point out something that is annoying about it.Early on, the practice problems are very difficult.

Whereas the projects that are developed during this book are brilliant (the server beat box is awesome), the exercises entitled "pool puzzle" are frustratingly difficult and not examples of good coding practice.

For example, page 91 of the second edition: To have to struggle through 30 lines of convoluted code just to produce an output of "result 543345".

That said, this is still a great book.Just skip the "pool puzzles", and you'll learn Java in a way that few books can teach.You will learn strong programming methods using good examples.

A great book for a beginner
The casual style of all of the Head First books is great.What a nice change from the usually dry material.That being said, there are times when I would have preferred they just get to the point and dispense with the cuteness.Don't let that scare you away however.You will still learn from this book.

It teaches you about Java, not Java itself
I am an English teacher by profession but I've always wanted to learn a programming language in order to be able to build simple interactive exercises for my students. I have a working knowledge in Visual Basic and JavaScript in which I've been working for the last couple of years. Not knowing where to start with Java, I picked this book based on the numerous positive comments and the fact that it is considered to be a beginner's book. However, my overall impression so far, I've covered the first five chapters, is that like some other programming books I've seen it teaches you about Java, but not Java. What I mean is that it gives you the description of the tools but it hardly tells you where, when and how to use these tools. Probably these are left to the reader to figure out. Now in my opionion this is too heavy a burden for a begginer who needs guidance all along. In my opinion, it's a bit like teaching foreign languages. Giving just grammar rules is never enough. Just as important, if not more, is to to provide situations where these rules are put to use. ... Read more

Book Description

The Deitels' groundbreaking How to Program series offers unparalleled breadth and depth of object-oriented programming concepts and intermediate-level topics for further study. The Seventh Edition has been extensively fine-tuned and is completely up-to-date with Sun Microsystems, Inc.’s latest Java release — Java Standard Edition 6 (“Mustang”) and several Java Enterprise Edition 5 topics. Contains an extensive OOD/UML 2 case study on developing an automated teller machine. Takes a new tools-based approach to Web application development that uses Netbeans 5.5 and Java Studio Creator 2 to create and consume Web Services. Featuresnew AJAX-enabled, Web applications built with JavaServer Faces (JSF), Java Studio Creator 2 and the Java Blueprints AJAX Components. Includes new topics throughout, such as JDBC 4, SwingWorker for multithreaded GUIs, GroupLayout, Java Desktop Integration Components (JDIC), and much more. A valuable reference for programmers and anyone interested in learning the Java programming language.

* MySQL(R) 5.0 Community Server / v5.0.27
* MySQL(R) Connector/J Version 5.0.4
* Sun(R) Java(TM) Studio Creator 2 Update 1
* NetBeans(TM) IDE Version 5.5 with Java EE Application Server 9.0 U1 Bundle

Customer Reviews (10)

Excellent book for Java beginner
I learned my first C language with this series "C: How to program". After that, How to program series are my favorite programming books on my bookshell. I highly recoment this book to who are java beginners. For a biginner, the most important is simple codes with line by line explaination. The book is just written on this way. Good job!

Excelent Book
I recently took the Sun Microsystems Java Programming Language course, the SL-275, and was kinda hard to keep up with no previous experience with java. But with this book everything is getting clear now.

It's well written, easy to understand, very explanatory, i haven't finished it yet because i was reading some Debian Linux books. But i can tell you, this is a must if you want to learn java.

Great Intro + lots of examples
I am a hobby programmer.
I really like the style of this book.
I played with Java a little before this book and I had trouble with compiling and running the programs.(You have to edit the environmental variables in XP)
He covered that almost immediately. That alone told me how systematic his approach is.
I have not delved in any further then Chapter 8, but following the samples with the proper way of preparation is very helpful.

Very Goodbook.
I amcurrentlytakinga classin Javaandthisbookhasbeenagreat helpin understandingthe fundamentals.Itiswrittenreallywellandexamplecodesand the codeexplanations are very helpful.Thecase studiesatthe endof the chaptersaregreat.TheCDwithexamplefiles is helpfulbecauseitallowsyoutodomorethanread,youcanget handsonworkwith the codes.

Theonlydrawbackisthesizeofthebookandthatisn'tveryseriouscomparedtoall of itsgoodqualities

Good for even experience developers
I've been programming C++ for 12+ years now (C for 23+), and I was hoping Deitel had a Developer Series book for Java (like they have for C#), but there currently is not one.

However, that did not deter me from purchasing their "How to Program" book, and it has been worth it.If you are an experienced developer, this book still contains good info, with great examples, is up-to-date with the latest Java language enhancements.

If you're one of those people who judge a book by the inverse proportion of the number of pages, please rethink your view.Sure, this book is big, but it shows all you need to know, which is great if you are new to programming, and is a minor hassle if you are not.

Colorized code helps greatly (like your IDE).It gets into language syntax/semantics but also the various java import libraries - graphics, database, et. al.

The Software Engineering tips are always "right on".

I am currently taking a graduate class in Java at my local university and this book has come in handy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (39)

Very Practical
For me, the most helpful feature of this book are the advices about what not to do -- Best practices on Java concurrency. The authors addressed all the problems I've had with Java concurrency. For those are not using Java 5 yet, it is interesting to remind that the examples are implemented in Java 5.

The last book that will ever be written on Java concurrency
I've been doing Java development for close to thirteen years now, and I learned an enormous amount from this fantastic book. For example, I knew what the textbook definition of a volatile variable was, but I never knew why I would actually want to use one. Now I know when to use them and when they won't solve the problem.

Of course, JCP talks about the Java 5 concurrency library at great length. But this is no paraphrasing of the javadoc. (It was Doug Lea's original concurrency utility library that eventually got incorporated into Java, and we're all better off for it.) The authors start with illustrations of real issues in concurrent programming. Before they introduce the concurrency utilities, they explain a problem and illustrate potential solutions. (Usually involving at least one naive "solution" that has serious flaws.) Once they show us some avenues to explore, they introduce some neatly-packaged, well-tested utility class that either solves the problem or makes a solution possible. This removes the utility classes from the realm of "inscrutable magic" and presents them as "something difficult that you don't have to write."

The best part about JCP, though, is the combination of thoroughness and clarity with which it presents a very difficult subject. For example, I always understood about the need to avoid concurrent modification of mutable state. But, thanks to this book, I also see why you have to synchronize getters, not just setters. (Even though assignment to an integer is guaranteed to happen atomically, that isn't enough to guarantee that the change is visible to other threads. The only way to guarantee ordering is by crossing a synchronization barrier on the same lock.)

I've seen hundreds of web site crashes. Every single one of them eventually boils down to blocked threads somewhere. Java Concurrency in Practice has the theory, practice, and tools that you can apply to avoid deadlocks, live locks, corrupted state, and a host of other problems that lurk in the most innocuous-looking code.

Remarkable book
Very simple -- if you need to write a concurrent Java application you must have this book.
The book teaches you more than just the theoretical aspects of concurrent programming such as exclusion mechanisms, liveness and safety issues, it shows the correct way to do it in Java.
A comprehensive tutorial of the concurrency package provided in j2se 5 and 6 is given, and I think it is a crucial aid for writing correct and maintainable concurrent code in Java.
The advanced topics in the book give you a better understanding of the inner workings of Java and even the inner workings of compilers and modern processors and this is done without going into redundant details.

The only comment I have about the book, is that I would expect at least a chapter or two about parallel and distributed programming and the available Java frameworks that support it.

Simple clear advice on concurrency
Don't think I can add much to the review of this title, it is simply one of the
best and clearest books on concurrency usage in Java applications.

Dissection on Java Concurrency
This is a book about Java concurrency design, not merely how to use Java thread through a set of APIs.

Authors go through fairly deep on what the challenges are faced by Java developers on designing robust concurrent applications, what should be considered to balance design forces between liveness and safety, how to utilize parallelism to achieve better scalabilities, what pitfalls should be avoided, how to test concurrent applications. A lot of practical examples are given under the context.

Most of "new" components in java.util.concurrent package are explored and analyzed, for what the thoughts are behind, why the design came the way it is and what balance it achieves. These components can be used as a basic building block for composing more sophisticated solutions to meet your application concurrency requirements.

Though the theories behind concurrency are not trivial, the book presents them in a very clear, concise and easy understanding way. It is a truly remarkable book for Java developers in trenches.
... Read more

Amazon.com
Written for the working Java developer, Joshua Bloch'sEffective Java Programming Language Guide provides a trulyuseful set of over 50 best practices and tips for writing better Javacode. With plenty of advice from an indisputable expert in the field,this title is sure to be an indispensable resource for anyone who wantsto get more out of their code.

As a veteran developer at Sun, theauthor shares his considerable insight into the design choices madeover the years in Sun's own Java libraries (which the authoracknowledges haven't always been perfect). Based on his experienceworking with Sun's best minds, the author provides a compilation of 57tips for better Java code organized by category. Many of these ideaswill let you write more robust classes that better cooperate withbuilt-in Java APIs. Many of the tips make use of software patterns anddemonstrate an up-to-the-minute sense of what works best in today'sdesign. Each tip is clearly introduced and explained with code snippetsused to demonstrate each programming principle.

Early sections oncreating and destroying objects show you ways to make better use ofresources, including how to avoid duplicate objects. Next comes anabsolutely indispensable guide to implementing "required" methods forcustom classes. This material will help you write new classes thatcooperate with old ones (with advice on implementing essentialrequirements like the equals() and hashCode()methods).

The author has a lot to say about class design, whetherusing inheritance or composition. Tips on designing methods show youhow to create understandable, maintainable, and robust classes that canbe easily reused by others on your team. Sections on mapping C code(like structures, unions, and enumerated types) onto Java will help Cprogrammers bring their existing skills to Sun's new language. Latersections delve into some general programming tips, like usingexceptions effectively. The book closes with advice on using threadsand synchronization techniques, plus some worthwhile advice on objectserialization.

Whatever your level of Java knowledge, this title canmake you a more effective programmer. Wisely written, yet never pompousor doctrinaire, the author has succeeded in packaging some reallyvaluable nuggets of advice into a concise and very accessible guidebookthat arguably deserves a place on most any developer's bookshelf.--Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Best practices and tips for Java
• Creating and destroying objects (static factory methods,singletons, avoiding duplicate objects and finalizers)
• Required methods for custom classes (overriding equals(),hashCode(), toString(), clone(), andcompareTo() properly)
• Hints for class and interface design (minimizing class and memberaccessibility, immutability, composition versus inheritance, interfacesversus abstract classes, preventing subclassing, static versusnonstatic classes)
• C constructs in Java (structures, unions, enumerated types, andfunction pointers in Java)
• Tips for designing methods (parameter validation, defensive copies,method signatures, method overloading, zero-length arrays, hints forJavadoc comments)
• General programming advice (local variable scope, using Java APIlibraries, avoiding float and double for exactcomparisons, when to avoid strings, string concatenation, interfacesand reflection, avoid native methods, optimizing hints, namingconventions)
• Programming with exceptions (checked versus run-time exceptions,standard exceptions, documenting exceptions, failure-captureinformation, failure atomicity)
• Threading and multitasking (synchronization and scheduling hints,thread safety, avoiding thread groups)
• Serialization (when to implement Serializable, thereadObject(), and readResolve() methods)

Customer Reviews (117)

Thing of Beauty is Joy Forever ...
It is incredible to read Joshua's insights. Forget about being a Java Guru or something like that. This book is pure joy to read if you are detail oriented, perfectionist or a student of art of programming in general.

I have started this effort of creating a distilled version of this book coupled with my own reflections at: [...]. To any curious reader though, any such effort is not a replacement for the book itself. It is a masterpiece.

- Kedar Mhaswade

Best Java book available
I've been using Java since 1995 and have owned this book since 2001 and it's the only Java text I still turn to.I recommend every Java developer, no matter what level you're at, read this book and read it again every year for the remainder of your career.I doesn't matter who you are or how experienced you think you are -- you will learn from this book.I give "Effective Java" my highest recommendation.I cannot wait for the Second Edition.

Effective reading
This is the best technical book I have ever read.
It explains the pros and cons of many Java-dependent programming approaches. The author describes Java techniques based on JVM, code readability, extensibility, performance, fault tolerance, bug finding...
If you have/want to code or design Java software this book is a must-a-have.

Excellent book but nice to have an update
Very well written book. I learned a lot from this book. I thought I know Java a lot thru my experience on them but realized I am missing a lot after reading this book. Though it is an excellent book, I am wondering when will Joshua Bloch will come up with the next edition to cover new features of Java. I heard that he moved from Sun Microsystems to Google, so he may be too busy there to have a follow-up on this book.

Something for programmers at every level
That's the good news. The bad news is: needs to be updated for Java 1.5 (or even 1.6). There an entire section, for example, on how to simulate Enum, which is now part of the language. (In fact, I think Block was one of its implementors!) ... Read more

Book Description
Get the book that shows you not only what to study, but how to study. The only classroom-based integrated study system for professional certification gives you complete coverage of all objectives for the Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 exam, hundreds of practice exam questions, and hands-on exercises. The CD-ROM features full practice exam software plus an adaptive test engine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (266)

dry, yet fun
Java is fun reading about it is ||

great book for learning all about the java environment.

BUT

Have your IDE open and type the code as you see it, change it, understand it and WOW...your learning

its really and great book!!!!

Excellent Study Guide! The only one you would ever need-
I just passed the SCJP 5.0 exam, and my only study material source was this book. I consider myself an intermediate java programmer- I had to study every chapterand their exercises quite comprehensively. I had to reread all most all chapters, 2-3 times, to grasp the content, and while actual test turned out much easier than those end chapter exercises, it helped a lot to understand the exam questions. Often during exam I chuckled at questions because this book exactly talked about them, the seemingly easy looking questions with traps and tricks to divert the attention from actual problem. I whole heartedly recommend this book for exam preparation- every single concept is explained with an example code to understand it easily. All the best to rests!
(PS: I did not take any mock exam, whichultimately affected my score as I found it hard to concentrate for 3 and half hours. I couldn't manage my time efficiently, I had to answer last 5 question in only 7 minutes. So I think not taking any mock exam was a big mistake on my part.)

Perfect material for the SCJP
This is THE book for preparing for the SCJP Certification. I passed the certification using only this book as preparation.

The only book you will need for the SCJP 5.0 exam
I used this book as my study guide and passed the exam with a 81% score. Great book really focused on the exam. If you are new to Java get the Head First one. If your intent is to pass the exam grab this one and get the mock exam from whizlabs. Best combo for clearing the exam!

I Wish I Could Get My Money Back....
I've read this book twice, and what Alberto Gemin says is COMPLETELY true!
(He gave it one star as well.)
I've even felt like throwing my book away.
The bad humour,arrogance,confusing and unstructured writing, is just "painful", as they like to use.
The included cd is not any good.
I guess this book gets high marks because it WAS the only game in town, until Paul Sanghera put his book out. That one is a lot better.

I suggest Scjp Exam For J2SE 5. by Paul Sanghera, Ph.D. It's cohesive, consise, and comprehensive. With LOTS of working runnable code!

... Read more

Book Description

This revised edition of the classic Core Java™, Volume I–Fundamentals, is the definitive guide to Java for serious programmers who want to put Java to work on real projects.

Fully updated for the new Java SE 6 platform, this no-nonsense tutorial and reliable reference illuminates the most important language and library features with thoroughly tested real-world examples. The example programs have been carefully crafted to be easy to understand as well as useful in practice, so you can rely on them as an outstanding starting point for your own code.

Volume I is designed to quickly bring you up to speed on what’s new in Java SE 6 and to help you make the transition as efficiently as possible, whether you’re upgrading from an earlier version of Java or migrating from another language. The authors concentrate on the fundamental concepts of the Java language, along with the basics of user-interface programming. You’ll find detailed, insightful coverage of

• Java fundamentals
• Object-oriented programming
• Interfaces and inner classes
• Reflection and proxies
• The event listener model
• GUI programming with Swing
• Packaging applications
• Exception handling
• Logging and debugging
• Generic programming
• The collections framework
• Concurrency

For detailed coverage of XML processing, networking, databases, internationalization, security, advanced AWT/Swing, and other advanced features, look for the forthcoming eighth edition of Core Java™, Volume II—Advanced Features (ISBN: 978-0-13-235479-0).

Customer Reviews (9)

So so
The book does well is saying what's new in JDK 5.0 and later.It doesn't do well in actually covering it.The book shows results of certain arguments, commands, etc..., without actually showing you the command that would be executed to achieve the result. It leave you to the trial and error of figuring out the syntax by yourself.

It also lacks explanation at the beginning chapters, making this a book I wouldn't want to start out learning JAVA with.I don't have other JAVA books covering the new specs, so I don't have anything to compare this to. However, I learned JAVA initially with FAR superior books to this.One was Introduction to JAVA Programming by Liang. It explaned everything a beginner needs to know, and included plenty of example code, and explained the code. I don't know if there is a new version though, and the one I have would be outdated now.

Even for the most experienced Java programmers
I am an extremely experienced Java programmer and Ph. D. computer scientist.I write and teach courses and develop technical assessments, so it's important to me to keep up with language developments.While I've bought a great many Java books over the years, I've been neglecting Core Java for many editions, thinking it would no longer be of any use and being tired of repurchasing books.I'm part way through this one, and I am astounded at how much I am discovering, especially about Java 5 & 6 (even though I thought I knew all about their new features).I'm also enjoying the detailed comparisons with C++, as I used to use and teach that too.No matter how much you know about Java I would strongly recommend this book, if only to read all the well-delineated comments and clarifications that appear frequently.A particularly nice feature is that where portions of the API are summarized there are indications of the version in which the feature was added -- it helped reduce my feelings of chagrin when I read something surprising to find that it had been introduced in v6 or was a part of v5 I hadn't yet explored. Unlike so many other books this one provides meaningful and useful examples.I am eagerly anticipating the second volume.

Great book
This is a great book, it provides detailed descriptions about how to write in Java.I recommend it if you have some, (but not much) java experience, or even if you have a lot of experience.It includes great programs, references, and notes describing how to use the most commonly used peices of java.If there are certain methods not in the book, it gives exact references to them online at the sun website.

Core Java, Volumn I - Fundamentals (8th Ed.)
This is a very fine book.Althought I am still progressing through the first third of it, I have found it to be very useful.

Core Java Fundamentals Review
An excellent book for learning the basics of Java. If the reader has had previous experience with C or C++ it makes learning Java much easier. As with most books of this type the authors often give examples which tend to be on the elaborate side. However, this is a sound text for learning the Java language and I would have no hesitation in recommending it. ... Read more

Book Description

With more than 700,000 copies sold to date, Java in a Nutshell from O'Reilly is clearly the favorite resource amongst the legion of developers and programmers using Java technology. And now, with the release of the 5.0 version of Java, O'Reilly has given the book that defined the "in a Nutshell" category another impressive tune-up.

Customer Reviews (31)

in a nutshell - meh
I am a programmer, and in a programming language book, I expect to find syntactical diagrams of the language.Anyone can read those, we should not have to glean the diagram from the wordy explanation.It's fine to have all the verbiage, but head each section with the syntax diagram.
Also, this book goes into lengthy explanations of what object oriented programming is NOT, as on page 104.This is a very bad practice in teaching.Only teach what is correct, not what some novice might ignorantly think.Ihave gotten better fundamentals in Java free on the w3c site.

this Nutshell has become a Bomb Shelter
I used to like this Nutshell book, but it seems to have grown a little too big for its bridges. Maybe it's not O'Reily's fault. Maybe it has more to do with Java growing so much. But earlier versions were quick and to the point. This is now overly verbose.

This is no longer a sleek Nutshell. Its a back-breaking bomb shelter with 10ft thick walls.

Excellent reference, but could lose the last 2/3 of the book
I very much like this as a reference, but at this point I feel like most of the back 2/3 of the book is unnecessary bulk. The front portion, however, is excellent.

Good reference book , but a little heavy
This is a great book for those Java programmers who want a rapid reference. The only drawback of this book is its weigth: the large part of the book is made of a Java reference (very similar to the official JavaDoc) that in my opinion is not so helpful, as if I need the documentation for a specific class I can browse the official documentation online.
Anyway, the first part of the book is well written and gives many examples that can help both new and experienced programmers to understand the main features of Java 5.

Java in a bombshell
The book is by far the most comprehensive, plain english manual for java that exists. Great book, but anyone who see's it laughs at the title. I think it must be an intentional joke. With 1225 pages and weighing in at a hefty 1.5kg (3.3lb) it's by no means a nutshell. It's more like a bombshell. If it were ever to be divided into 3 books, I would buy it again, just so that using it wouldn't be so cumbersome. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Thinking in Java is a printed version of Bruce Eckel's online materials that provides a useful perspective on mastering Java for those with previous programming experience. The author's take on the essence of Java as a new programming language and the thorough introduction to Java's features make this a worthwhile tutorial.

Thinking in Java begins a little esoterically, with the author's reflections on why Java is new and better. (This book's choice of font for chapter headings is remarkably hard on the eyes.) The author outlines his thoughts on why Java will make you a better programmer, without all the complexity. The book is better when he presents actual language features. There's a tutorial to basic Java types, keywords, and operators. The guide includes extensive source code that is sometimes daunting (as with the author's sample code for all the Java operators in one listing.) As such, this text will be most useful for the experienced developer.

The text then moves on to class design issues, when to use inheritance and composition, and related topics of information hiding and polymorphism. (The treatment of inner classes and scoping will likely seem a bit overdone for most readers.) The chapter on Java collection classes for both Java Developer's Kit (JDK) 1.1 and the new classes, such as sets, lists, and maps, are much better. There's material in this chapter that you are unlikely to find anywhere else.

Chapters on exception handling and programming with type information are also worthwhile, as are the chapters on the new Swing interface classes and network programming. Although it adopts somewhat of a mixed-bag approach, Thinking in Java contains some excellent material for the object-oriented developer who wants to see what all the fuss is about with Java.Book Description
The legendary author Bruce Eckel brings Java to life with this extraordinarily insightful, opinionated and downright funny introduction. Thinking in Java introduces all of the language's fundamentals, one step at a time, using to-the-point code examples. More than virtually any other book, Thinking in Java helps you understand not just what to do -- but why. Eckel introduces all the basics of objects as Java uses them; then walks carefully through the fundamental concepts underlying all Java programming -- including program flow, initialization and cleanup, hiding implementations, reusing classes and polymorphism. Using extensive, to-the-point examples, he introduces error handling, exceptions, Java I/O, run-time type identification, and passing and returning objects. He covers the Java AWT, multithreading, network programming with Java -- even design patterns. The best way to understand the real value of this book is to hear what readers of the online version have been saying about it: "much better than any other Java book I've seen, by an order of magnitude..." "mature, consistent, intellectually honest, well-written and precise..." "a thoughtful, penetrating analytical tutorial which doesn't kowtow to the manufacturers..." "Thank you again for your awesome book. I was really floundering, but your book has brought me up to speed as quickly as I could read it!"For both beginner and experienced C and C++ programmers who want to learn Java.

* From the basics of object development, all the way to design patterns and other advanced topics.

* By the author of the best-selling Thinking in C++ -- winner of the 1995 Jolt Cola Award!

* On-line version has already received tens of thousands of hits -- there's a huge built-in demand for this book! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (297)

Comprehesive Java Tutorial
Thinking in Java is a quite comprehensive book for intermediate to advanced level for Java programmers. Each chapter can be read individually in order to learn inner details of Java 5/6 language. This is not a book for a new comer to Java language.

A Bit Disappointed
Much of the code in the book is predicated on you using some of his custom libraries.As a result, you learn things his way, not necessarily the standard way to code Java.

The Java Bible with Design Patterns
I really liked this book, its a complete one. I used it to study for the SCJP 5.0 Exam as a complement to the Kathys book. Its however not a beginners book. You have to have some programming background cause its very theorical book. It explains in depth every subject, and its it drawback too, it gets a little boring with so much explanation, and in some examples it focuses more on the Design Patterns than Java. This is the Java Bible,every thing you will need is inside.

Become a Java guru
I have been a Java developer for 7 years, and my knowledge of Java increased by double, if not more, after reading this book.This book is fantastic to get deep into general Java topics. No kidding, I learned enough that I was able to point out features in Java that even our "gurus" at work did not know.Now I am one of the gurus! Note that the book covers no J2EE and is only an intro to concurrency so suppliment with books specific to those topics if you need.

thinkingInJava
I really like that fact that the book was sent to me very quickly. The seller explained everything of the book's flaws; every description is as is and no exaggeration. Thank you, I hope my next product comes from this seller as well. ... Read more

Book Description
This comprehensive guide shows you how to master the most important changes to Java since it was first released.Generics and the greatly expanded collection libraries have tremendously increased the power of Java 5 and Java 6.But they have also confused many developers who haven't known how to take advantage of these new features.

Java Generics and Collections covers everything from the most basic uses of generics to the strangest corner cases.It teaches you everything you need to know about the collections libraries, so you'll always know which collection is appropriate for any given task, and how to use it.

Customer Reviews (15)

Java Generics and Collections and Bears, Oh My!
Generics in Java have some non-trivial aspects, and this book does a great job of explaining when you need to use what in a comprehensive and concise manner. I thought I knew Generics, now I know I didn't... If List looks strange to you, then this book is for you.

Not sure why half of the book is devoted to Collections (rather than having that be a separate book), but in any case these chapters are also very well written. There are simple explanations how to choose the most suitable Collection classes for any given situation.

The Collections discussion touches the issue of multi-threaded programming. I almost expect the next edition to be titled "Java Generics and Collections and Concurrency"...

fabulous and concise
I recently went from about 0 Java experience to it being the only language (virtually) at a brand new job. I came from a heavy C/C++(STL)/Perl background (12 years).

I bought about 6 Java books including the Sun ones (language spec + "effective programming", both great).

This has been most useful as it's relatively short, covers up to Java 6 (sadly work we only use 5 as we're on mac os X). but it's like a quick ref to the "STL" of Java, at least how i see it .

great boook

Wonderful Book on Generics and Collections With Java Focus
'Java Generics and Collections' by Maurice Naftalin in a fantastic book focussed on this interesting topic of generics and collections with Java as the main language to explore these programming concepts.At nearly 300 pages in length, this book has plenty of meat and content within.I love the new font look in this O'Reilly book and was impressed all throughout while perusing this book.15 chapters of content are seen when you pull back the cover and start reading.This book 'could' be for the most novice of programmers but it's better suited towards a more experienced programmer that is looking to expand their knowledge and become a BETTER developer.

If you want to learn about generics and collections for Java or any language, this is a great reference to learn and expand your development skillset with best practices in mind.

**** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Finally, A Book Devoted To Generics And Collections
Ever since the release of Java 5, I've been keeping my eyes open for a book that describes what I believe to be the most powerful new feature of Java - generics. The new book published by O'Reilly, Java Generics and Collections covers the topic in spades. As a bonus, the second half of this book examines the Java Collections Framework. Since the Collections Framework was rewritten to incorporate the use of generics, it makes perfect sense for the authors to spend a reasonable amount of time describing the new interfaces.

A brief introduction highlights the use of generics, autoboxing, foreach loops, generic methods and varargs. The examples are written using the Collections Framework. Subtyping and the use of wildcards follow the introduction and begin to show the real power of generics.

Getting past the basics, a chapter devoted to the Comparable and Comparator interfaces describes some very useful concepts, such as how to use the Comparable interface to find the minimum or maximum element in a collection. The use of enumerated types is briefly covered here, as well as the concepts of multiple bounds, bridges and covariant overriding.

A chapter describing how to declare a generic class helps you build your own classes. Following that is a useful chapter that describes how the design of generics is evolutionary, not revolutionary. It details how generics in Java 5 allow you to gradually migrate your legacy code, rather than replace it all at once.

If you use generic types in casts, instance testing, exceptions or arrays, a chapter on reification warns you of rough edges and limitations you may find and describes some workarounds. How generics changes reflection is also covered.

The last two chapters of the first half of the book describe how to use generics effectively in your code and provide samples of how implementations of select design patterns can take advantage of generics.

The second half of the book, which dives into the Collections Framework, starts with a quick chapter called 'Preliminaries' that spends time discussing underlying concepts, such as the Iterable interface. Thread safety issues are covered in this chapter as well. Thread-safe concurrent collections were introduced in Java 5 and their use, as compared with synchronized collections is also discussed.

The Collection interface is given its own chapter, which is important considering that it defines functionality common to any type of collection other than maps. Following are chapters describing sets, queues and lists. The Map interface also warrants its own chapter, in which the available methods and the various map implementations are discussed. The comparative performance of different set, queue, list and map implementations is shown in tables at the end of each chapter.

Following the Collection and Map interface chapters is the final chapter which describes the Collections class in detail. The Collections class contains static methods that operate on collections or return them.

I found the code and diagrams in this book very easy to understand and a great resource when trying to decide which collection or map implementation to use for a specific problem.

Once you learn how to take advantage of generics, you'll begin to write more useful, reusable code. This book now occupies a space on my shelf next to my Algorithms and Data Structures books.

Oddly dull for an interesting topic; not Wadler's best
I've read many of Wadler's whitepapers (usually on Haskell), and have always found him interesting. That's why this book was a bit of a surprise; parts of it were very hard to get through. Some of the examples (mostly the relentless focus on the Collections framework) were, frankly, dull. Much of the writing was repetitive. And many times the authors referred to another complex or difficult concept by section number, rather than briefly summarizing the issue. Apparently they were trying to be concise, but they succeeded in being cryptic. ... Read more

Product Description
This book teaches how to develop Java applications at the professional level. It starts by showing how to code, test, and debug everyday business applications that won t crash. It presents object-oriented features like classes, inheritance, interfaces, and polymorphism in a way that s both understandable and useful in the real world...perspective that s often missing in Java training. It presents essential Java skills such as working with data types, control statements, arrays, collections, generics, enumerations, exceptions, threads, Swing components, applets, and text and binary files. It covers new Java SE 6 features such as new JDBC features, the StAX XML API, and the built-in Derby database. And it s all done in the distinctive Murach style that has been training professional programmers for more than 30 years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Excellent Book to get me started in Java
As a UNIX/C/C++/python programmer, this book has allowed me entrance into the Java world. I went to the Java Conference and was overwhelmed by all the choices, but this book allows learning of the different methods and how to put Java together. I am still in about the fifth chapter so I am not sure if it suitable for an advanced Java programmer, but it is easy for a beginning Java programmer to follow. I heartily recommend this book. It also is accurate and the programs actually work (which is not always the case with a programming book....)

Murach's Java SE 6
There have been a number of books and tutorials written about Java. The gold standard for me has always been "Learning Java" by Patrick Niemeyer and Johnathan Knudsen (O'Reilly & Associates). I have had a number of new programmers, enthusiasts, and members of the JUG tell me it is information overload. The book does contain a lot of information in its 828 page heft. As a result, I have been looking for a book just for beginners. I have found it.

I just completed reviewing Murach's Java SE 6. It is a very good resource for learning Java. This book does an excellent job of providing a firm basis for understanding the technology. The book is clearly and concisely written. The book is divided into 5 major sections which cover the essential Java skills to advanced topics on data access programming using XML and JDBC.

The teaching style is very clever. It typically takes the form of a page of information with facing page with examples. I found this to be very important in getting sometimes difficult points across. I typically take the "Show me the code" philosophy, and this style works for me.

The other technique that used is to convey a purpose for learning Java. This is done by using the various topics as building blocks to create an application. The final result is a completed application at the end of the book. It encompasses the lessons learned, and gives the new programmer a sense of accomplishment with a completed functional application at the end of the book. I love it.

I have found that people learn better with functional code examples. This book is replete with them. One of my greatest annoyances is to have code samples which do not work. This clouds the ability to learn because it forces the beginning programmer to question their abilities. The shroud of uncertainty should not be because the gold standard code is incorrect. I am pleased to note that I tried a number of code examples and they all worked.

My favorite section is Data access programming with Java. Chapter 20 covers working with XML. This is a must for any programmer. XML is the new black, and anything that can help you learn this important technology is a must. In chapter 20, the topic of StAX is covered. This is the best simplified example of using StAX I have seen. After reading the information, and performing the examples, I felt I had a better understanding of this technology.

I only have a few minor negative points to mention: the title is a little misleading. The majority of the information in the book really details Java SE 5 enhancements with two notable exceptions: StAX and an introduction to Derby (Java DB).

My overall impression is that the book is an outstanding resource for new and seasoned programmers. This is a great book to add to the reference shelf.

GREAT book
I think this book is AMAZING.This is my 3rd Java book and I am impressed at every angle.

The layout is straight forward, easy to navigate, compact and to the point, and very professional.There isn't all the fluff that is associated with most beginner books (Heads Up series especially) and you will be learning the core PLUS writing your own miniprograms nearly from the start.

If you want to get straight to the point and learn realworld Java, this is the book for you.If you want a more holding-your-hand style of howto (which is just fine if you are starting a new language), look elsewhere.

This is a great book at a great price. I look forward to many more books from this author!

Fabulous Intro To Java
This book provides a cornucopeia of subjects that most intro to Java books briefly touch on, such as threading, setting up the Java environment on the windows pc,and the tutorials and instructions on using the various Java IDE's.I found these tutorials concise and easier to follow than on the Java web site.

As always, Murach's treatment of OOP concepts impressed me. By displaying these concepts in a real-world application it reinforces your learning heads, leaps, bounds and miles over OOP object models of cats, widgets, etc.

Best of all the code examples work!I can tell you how about the frustration of typing a 2-page code sample to realize, oops,the code sample doesn't work.

The main area the book failed to meet expectations revolved around the weakness of its database section.Providing only a command line version of the database application reduced my rating from 5 to 4.

Great book
This book is really informative, a great reference and good for learning too. I bought it because it's a required text for a Java course I'm taking and it's brilliant.

The one thing I can say is the question at the end of the chapter are sometimes vague. That's why I didn't give this book a 5 star rating. At times I'm left reading and rereading a question for 10 minutes before I get an inkling what they're talking about. ... Read more

Book Description

• Covering everything from basic Java development concepts to the latest tools and techniques used in Java, this book will put would-be programmers on their way to Java mastery
• Explores what goes into creating a program, how to put the pieces together, dealing with standard programming challenges, debugging, and making it work
• Updated for the release of the Java SDK 2.0, with all examples revised to reflect the changes in the technology

Customer Reviews (30)

Good for absolute noobs, but not in depth...
If you know nothing about programming, this book is pretty much for you.It discusses the most basic elements of the Java programming language, with good coverage of syntax and keywords.However, it simply doesn't go into great enough depth about everything.If it's for beginners, it ought to explain all the nuances of Java (what is public static void for), and cover the things most people would take for granted in depth.Overall, a good read for a beginner programmer, though!

Excellent book for learning JAVA.. The best java book for begineers.
I liked the author and his methodology right from the start of the book. His lighter and funny way to explain not only makes reading interesting but it helps you to understand the content better and faster.

I did not know Java before reading and now after reading the book, i KNOW Java, i did not Master Java (the book is not for a person to master) but i learnt a lot. The book would definitely do what its intended to do.. It'll teach you Java, if it sounds greek to you.

Highly Recomended.

Excellent for Self Motivated Learners.
I love this book, it has a lot of hands on practical experience. Not like most books where you just read about doing something without actually doing it. This book teaches you entry level hands onJava Programming in real time and as you read along, you actually have to have JCreator open while reading and practicing the basics of Java, it makes for a good solid foundation for later Programming Languages.

Great and Fun Intro to Programming
If you're looking for a basic intro to programming and want to learn a little Java, than this is the perfect book for you.I really enjoyed reading it because the author has such an awesome sense of humor.But, if you really want to learn Java in-depth and have no programming experience at all than I recommend this book along with another more detailed book about Java.After I read this book I read Just Java 2 to get more into Java. Otherwise, this book was really fun to read and accomplishes its goal of a basic intro to programming.

Great book if you're completely new to programming.
The author is a great teacher, does an excellent job teaching absolute beginners basic programming concepts and how these concepts relate to Java.

If you have had some/any previous programming learning experience than you might find this book will go too slow for you. However, if you really don't understand basic programming concepts than this book will explain them.

I recommend this book for absolute beginners in programming, not just beginners in Java but any programming. A very good start for someone who has never created or seen a program before. ... Read more

Book Description
Persistence-the ability of data to outlive an instance of a program-is central to modern applications.Hibernate, the most popular Java persistence tool, provides automatic and transparent object/relational mapping making it a snap to work with SQL databases in Java applications. Hibernate applications are cheaper, more portable, and more resilient to change. Because it conforms to the new EJB 3.0 and Java Persistence 1.0 standard, Hibernate allows the developer to seamlessly create efficient, scalable Java EE applications.

Java Persistence with Hibernate explores Hibernate by developing an application that ties together hundreds of individual examples. You'll immediately dig into the rich programming model of Hibernate 3.2 and Java Persistence, working through queries, fetching strategies, caching, transactions, conversations, and more. You'll also appreciate the well-illustrated discussion of best practices in database design, object/relational mapping, and optimization techniques.

In this revised edition of the bestselling Hibernate in Action, authors Christian Bauer and Gavin King-the founder of the Hibernate project-cover Hibernate 3.2 in detail along with the EJB 3.0 and Java Persistence standard. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (36)

Deep as a Bible, Heavy as a Bible, Boring as a Bible
Technically speaking you cannot get much better than this. Java Persistence with Hibernate is accurate, complete, detailed, and full of practical examples. I know this expression is overused but this is really the definite reference, the Bible of Hibernate. Basically any rasonable question you might have about how to use this wonderful persistence tool is in this book.
My only gripe is that while this book makes a great reference or a great aid to the experienced developer to bring his hibernate skills to the best level, it fails miserably when used to learn Hibernate from scratch. It's a pity because with a little more effort this could have been the perfect Hibernate book. In particular, 90 % of the example code is from the 'Caveat Emptor' hibernate reference application. Perfectly nice to the veteran developer, but a beginner needs to see the code in action immediately, and building and analyzing 'Caveat Emptor' or translate the original code into his own 'experiments' will probably be way out of his reach. Finally, the writing style is lofty, self-conceited and abysmally boring, and fails to point out what is important from the (almost always) irrelevant details. This being said, Hibernate Foundations are all in this book, which makes a real treasure trove for a senior developer who has already fought a few battles with Hibernate. A good Hibernate intro book has still to be written, so my only advice to the newbie is try some online tutorials, maybe browse the hibernate official website, find something more 'human-friendly' and 'New-Testament-like' , get to play with Hibernate a little, to the point where you can write a very simple, even rudimentaryapplication, and then you will be ready to start wrestling with this bible.

covers alot - book has grown on me
I wasn't very happy with this book when I first got it. In fact, I was pretty annoyed. It covered way too much material, tried to cover too many things, from mapping files to annotations to entity use to..... Man, it was frustrating. Just trying to learn the basics and understand how to use Hibernate was impossible. As a beginner, trying to learn Hibernate from this book made me want to throw the book out the window, with the hope that the book might land on the author's head.

Okay, BUT, I managed to learn Hibernate pretty much on my own. But as I got deeper into Hibernate, I found myself coming back to this book more and more. Maybe it didn't explain the basics all that well, but when it came to more advanced topics, you could find the stuff you were looking for, and with a better background in Hibernate, the technical stuff made more sense.

Once you understand Hibernate, and have learned the basics, going back to chapters in this book on deep transactions and other advanced topics really demonstrates the value of this book.

It's not a very good book for learning Hibernate. But once you do learn the basics, and you really need to use Hibernate, this is the book you absolutely need to have around.

I'm glad I didn't throw it out the window, and I'm really glad it didn't hit one of the authors.

The most important and accurate reference to Hibernate
Java Persistence with Hibernate (JPwH) is the follow up to Christian's and Gavin's Book Hibernate in Action.

This book covers Hibernate 3 and the Java Persistence API in every detail. I would recommend the book to beginners as well as advanced Hibernate users since the authors start with a very good introduction to Java Persistence in general and than dive deeper and deeper into Hibernate's feature set. At the end of each chapter you will find a very helpful comparison between Hibernate and JPA.

Sometimes I was a (very) little bit confused about the switching between Hibernate and JPA inside some of the chapters but this is actually the only downside of the book. However this point doesn't have a bad impact on the overall readability.

A big plus is also the example application that is being used throughout the book and that can be downloaded for free from the Hibernate website.

All in all this book is NOT an "utter waste", it is THE reference reading to Hibernate.

Has a lot of information..Readability issue
I am new to both hibernate and ORM. I brought this book thinking it will be a casual read. I agree with some of reviews, this book is very hard to read. I need to be sympathetic to authors though. The reason is this book covers a lot of facts and facts that can be translated into real production code. Obviously that is a ambitious task. Problem is reading and assimilating all this information and then quickly applying them in my current project. So I devised a way to read this book. I keep my laptop next to me, I read it page by page, writing code in the side and trying to understand what it means. By doing it I found the book is amazingly error free and just makes a lot of sense. I feel it is worth the price and time. ORM is a hard problem and this is the only available book that covers everything in ORM, JPA and hibernate.

Almost Too Much Info - Decent Reference, Brutal Learning Guide
Well, there's no doubt that this book has alot of material. The book is massive. But its not a fun book to read, and it's not very helpful at trying to teach you how to use hibernate. Even with this book and the yellow and black Beginning Hibernate book, I really felt I was learning it on my own.

I'll come back to this book to look up certain things, like when I need to do a polymorphic many to many mapping across multiple tables, but using examples like that to try and teach someone the basics isn't very effective.

I just find it so hard to believe that something that is supposed to be so simple and easy to use is so difficult to explain to people. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

If you're comfortable with programming ..
and would like to learn Java, then this is the book for you. It provides a very good discussion on all important topics in Core Java at a level that would suit a person who understands the basics of object oriented programming and wants to learn Java. There is a nice discussion on threading and even the Reflection API which is not usually covered in introductory texts in Java finds a place here...furthermore it is written by the founder of Java and it shows..the text is lucid without running the risk of being terse, and there are enough examples to illustrate the key points. Overall I would highly recommend this book to any programmer wishing to learn Java.

mediocre, too verbose
every programming language supposedly has two books: one tutorial, and the other a reference manual.the tutorial's strength lies in illuminating examples and progressive organization of the materials, while the reference book should shine with conciseness and rigorousness.

this book organizes the topics in a weird way, and the examples lack insights. one can judge this by looking at the "exception" chapter: verbose and not to the point.

What a book!
I thought I have fine Java knowledge, actually I already knew most stuff in this book exception some new things from Java 5. But the way these authors present Java language in such a simple, clean way make me felt I was overconfident about my Java knowledge. I believe this book benefits more for experienced Java programmer than newbie. It's terrific for beginners too, save you lots of fluff.

The reference book of the Java programming language (up to J2SE 5.0)
This book presents the basics of the Java programming language. Java is an object-oriented programming language, with a syntax inspired from the C and C++ programming languages [1, 2]. An important distinction must be made between the different parts of what is traditionally referred to as Java. Java is made of four parts: Java the programming language [3], Java the virtual machine [4], Java the standard set of libraries [5], and Java the specifications [6, 7]. This book is about the programming language.

The Java language basics covered in this book include classes and objects, fields, constants, constructors, methods, parameters, variables, arrays, strings, character sets, comments, garbage collection and memory management, inheritance, access controls, method overloading, interfaces, exceptions, packages, object cloning, primitive data types and their wrapper objects, type conversion, literals, arithmetic and conditional operators, statements and blocks, multithreading, file and network input/output streams, collections, observables, date and time, randomization, string tokenization, system properties, system calls, security, mathematics, and Java-to-C/C++ mapping. Additions to the fourth edition include the new J2SE 5.0 features, including generics, enums, annotations, assertions, and regular expressions. With so many bacics and the latest features, this book establishes as a comprehensive coverage of the Java programming language essentials, as for the 5.0 version of the Java 2 Standard Edition platform.

The authors of this book are also the co-founders of the Java language. Therefore, their authorship makes the book a de facto reference. Nevertheless, the discourse register hesitates between authoritative descriptions and the will to explain. The latter inclination of the register makes the content easier to understand, although the book cannot be considered as a tutorial. Simple examples illustrate the concepts presented, and a few exercises are progressively proposed with the reading. This unexpected combination of authority and pedagogy makes the book a valuable contribution to any computer scientist willing to learn the Java language from an authoritative reference. Beginners should however consider reading a dedicated tutorial book [8].

[1] L. H. Miller, A. E. Quilici, The Joy of C.
[2] B. Stroustrup, The C++ Programming Language.
[3] B. Joy et al., Java Language Specification.
[4] T. Lindholm, F. Yellin, The Virtual Machine Specification.
[5] P. Chan, The Java Developers Almanac.
[6] Sun Microsystems, API Specifications, Sun Web site.
[7] The Java Community Process Program, Java Specification Requests.
[8] M. Campione, K. Walrath, The Java Tutorial.

The Java Bible
If you want to understand Java inside out, this is the book for you. It is equivalent of "The C++ programming language" by Stroustrup and the original "K&R" for Java.
I would recommend you to read this book rather than the Java Specs unless you are writing a compiler.
It will also give you an insight on the why's of language design which helps you understand it better and also appreciate it. ... Read more

Book Description
KEY MESSAGE:Praised for providing an engaging balance of complete examples and explanatory discussion, Absolute Java, Third Edition, is the most comprehensive and accessible book available to both the novice and intermediate Java programming reader. Best-selling author Walt Savitch delivers concepts and techniques in a clear and concise style using understandable language and code enhanced by a suite of pedagogical tools.

Getting Started; Console Input and Output; Flow of Control; Defining Classes; Defining Classes II; Arrays; Inheritance; Polymorphism and Abstract Classes; Exception Handling; File I/O; Recursion; UML and Patterns; Interfaces and Inner Classes; Generics and ArrayList Class; Linked Data Structures; Collections and Iterators; Swing I; Applets; Swing II; Java Never Ends.

For all readers interested in the Java programming language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

The best guide to JAVA
I learned JAVA language a couple of years ago. As I have to reuse it recently, I borrow the 2nd Edtion from a computer science guy in the school, because many people told me this is the best one. After I read through it, I decided to purchase the newest edtion. It's INDEED the best one of the JAVA guides I've ever read.

Finally! A non-baby intro book
I've tried three other Java intro books, and they either aren't well-organized or they take such a dim view of the reader's abilities that it's like reading Programming for Pre-schoolers. Absolute Java is well-structured with both breadth & depth: it doesn't ignore programming basics, but covers a much larger scope of material than other books I've tried, while still including detail about intricacies of more sophisticated aspects of the language. Uses lots of good, robust examples. Love it.

Excellent book!
It took me a couple months of my own time reading this book to prepare myself for a second round back to school.I have not programmed in almost 8 years and it was in C.I have to say that as an introductory programming book, Savitch did a superb job.You cannot get any more clear on the topics of the basics and foundations of the Java language than this.If you're just a passerby that just wants to get yourself started in Java, I recommend this book.

The book was good, and it came veryfast
However, Amazon needs to find publisher that can scale down the prices on school textbook. The book was expensive!

Great book, great condition!
The book was recommended by my professor and it is